The Survivor
by Ukhengching Marma second-year undergraduate student
AlalODulal; January 2015
This is the story of an 8 year-old Marma girl, who loves to go school,
likes to play with her friends, and lives with her family in a small remote village
in Rangamati in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
On 14th January 2015, she was coming home from school alone as her
friends had left her behind. She did not know what was going to happen with
her that day. With her child’s mind, she walked home carefree. As she passed
the jungle on the way back to her home, a man suddenly attacked her and a
terrible incident took place: the man raped this little girl. When the girl finally
returned home, she was crying and bleeding profusely.
The family, including the girl’s parents and grandmother, was able to
reach Chittagong town from Rangamati with the help of some indigenous
students and they admitted the girl to a hospital. A senior sister contacted me
and asked me to come to the hospital but my university did not give me
permission to leave campus at night for security reasons. The sister stayed
with the girl the whole night. According to her the girl was bleeding profusely,
but the hospital authority did not try to give special attention to her condition.
That senior sister cleaned the blood herself the whole the night and tried to
console both the parents and the girl.
Then the next day, on 15th January, the girl was shifted to another
section of the hospital but no one was allowed to stay with the girl except her
mother. As the mother cannot communicate in Bangla, I was given permission
to stay with them for one night as a translator to help the mother communicate
with the nurses and doctors.
As I had heard about the condition of the girl from the senior sister, I
struggled to muster the courage to face the girl for first time. My steps
stumbled as I walked into the room. I saw a glimpse of the girl’s face from the
corner of the door, closed my eyes, and then went near her.
My heart kept sinking and pinching itself as I touched her little fingers.
The whole night her mom and I barely slept because the girl would often
scream due to her pain. The night passed away and the sun rose with our
eyes still open.
According to the girl’s mother, they know the rapist well. He has a
plantation near their home and is also a tea seller in their area. In their village,
there are only 6 indigenous Marma families surrounded by the Bengalis who
were settled there from elsewhere a few years back.
…
This incident happened within one month of another tragic incident on
15th December 2014, which also occurred in Rangamati, where one Marma
girl was raped and murdered by settlers. This could have happened to me or
any of my sisters.